28-03-2009, 12:31 AM
I completely missed this at the time. Has any one here been watching this event?
NEW UPDATED X2 March 27, more info out now from Sudan. They now claim they thought at first, it was the USA that carried out the TWO attacks, one in January and one in February. But now say the US gave them "assurances" it was not them. Then they said they thought it was Israel, but now say they are not sure if it "is" Israel or not. given that it could only be the US or Israel? Who is covering for whom?
Original post below from 26th March
Oh what a slippery slope Obama is now on. This Sudanese attack has US cooperation and Intelligence assistance written all over it IMHO. It would appear that Israel is now going to be attacking and invading any country where it deems anything suspicious, and with the approval (or assistance) of the US government.
On January 19th 2009 an MOU (memorandum of understanding) was signed between the US government and Israel to “work together” in keeping anyone from replenishing arms to Hamas. (Like every time Israel invades, Hamas doesn’t have the right to defend itself, its people and it’s country from an invader? Only Israel gets to defend itself as we have seen and continue to see) But, there you go. At any rate, the Israeli fighter jets would have had to fly a great distance and possibly through other countries air space, additionally needing a mid air re-fuelling to complete the mission.
It seems like Obama is going to not only keep, but honour, the agreements Bush made with Israel, so much for “change” and “hope” This means the US will support Israeli attacks into other countries, and possibly assist in those attacks. As if the US does not have enough problems already. Israel is pushing America towards war with Iran and has been for 3 years now. The slippery slope begins.
From the Globe and Mail:
NEW UPDATED X2 March 27, more info out now from Sudan. They now claim they thought at first, it was the USA that carried out the TWO attacks, one in January and one in February. But now say the US gave them "assurances" it was not them. Then they said they thought it was Israel, but now say they are not sure if it "is" Israel or not. given that it could only be the US or Israel? Who is covering for whom?
Sudan says no proof for now Israel behind raids
5 hours ago
KHARTOUM (AFP) — Sudan is investigating the possibility that Israel was behind deadly air strikes this year against suspected Gaza-bound arms convoys, but so far it has found no proof, a government official said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said there were two separate bombing raids against smugglers in a remote desert area near the Red Sea town of Port Sudan in January and February, killing about 40 people.
"First we suspected it was the United States, but we received assurances it was not them, and we are investigating other possibilities, including Israel," Sadiq told AFP. "But there is no indication for now that it was Israel."
5 hours ago
KHARTOUM (AFP) — Sudan is investigating the possibility that Israel was behind deadly air strikes this year against suspected Gaza-bound arms convoys, but so far it has found no proof, a government official said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said there were two separate bombing raids against smugglers in a remote desert area near the Red Sea town of Port Sudan in January and February, killing about 40 people.
"First we suspected it was the United States, but we received assurances it was not them, and we are investigating other possibilities, including Israel," Sadiq told AFP. "But there is no indication for now that it was Israel."
Original post below from 26th March
Oh what a slippery slope Obama is now on. This Sudanese attack has US cooperation and Intelligence assistance written all over it IMHO. It would appear that Israel is now going to be attacking and invading any country where it deems anything suspicious, and with the approval (or assistance) of the US government.
On January 19th 2009 an MOU (memorandum of understanding) was signed between the US government and Israel to “work together” in keeping anyone from replenishing arms to Hamas. (Like every time Israel invades, Hamas doesn’t have the right to defend itself, its people and it’s country from an invader? Only Israel gets to defend itself as we have seen and continue to see) But, there you go. At any rate, the Israeli fighter jets would have had to fly a great distance and possibly through other countries air space, additionally needing a mid air re-fuelling to complete the mission.
It seems like Obama is going to not only keep, but honour, the agreements Bush made with Israel, so much for “change” and “hope” This means the US will support Israeli attacks into other countries, and possibly assist in those attacks. As if the US does not have enough problems already. Israel is pushing America towards war with Iran and has been for 3 years now. The slippery slope begins.
From the Globe and Mail:
“Whoever did this was operating with pretty hard intelligence,” said Mark Heller, principal research associate of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
“The strike itself would have required satellite guidance or cameras on the missiles,” Mr. Heller said. “There are only two air forces that could have carried it out: the U.S. and Israeli.”
The United States has strongly denied carrying out any such attack.
“The U.S. military has not conducted any air strikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since the U.S. Africa Command formally began operations Oct. 1” said Vince Crawley, a spokesman for the command.
Such a trip would have required at least one in-air refuelling, Mr. Heller said.
“Until now, our priorities have been along the Gaza-Sinai frontier,” the (Israeli) official said. “While efforts there are continuing, we also have to ask ourselves: Is it possible to be more pro-active in intercepting weapons before they arrive at the frontier?
“That's why we signed an MOU with [former U.S.] secretary of state [Condoleezza] Rice, to intercept weapons shipments,” he said.
The memorandum of understanding, signed Jan. 16 in Washington by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, calls for the United States and its partners to work together to address the problem of the supply of arms to Hamas and other militant forces in Gaza. It lists the areas where such arms shipments may occur as “the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Eastern Africa.” Sudan is an Eastern African country.
http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2009...ttack.html
***************************************************
Israeli Attack On Sudan Killed At Least 39 U.S. Officials Say Israel Struck in Sudan
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
March 27, 2009 "NYT" -- - WASHINGTON — Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January that was believed to be carrying arms to be smuggled into Gaza, according to American officials.
Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the attack, but intelligence analysts noted that the strike was consistent with other measures Israel had taken to secure its borders.
American officials said the airstrike took place as Israel sought to stop the flow of weapons to Gaza during the weeks it was fighting a war with Hamas there.
Two American officials who are privy to classified intelligence assessments said that Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza. They also noted that there had been intelligence reports that an operative with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort.
But one former official said that the exact provenance of the arms that were being smuggled via Sudan was unclear.
Although the airstrike was carried out two months ago, it was not publicized until Sudanese officials said Thursday that a convoy of trucks in the remote eastern part of Sudan was bombed by what they called “American fighters,” killing dozens. The strikes were first reported on several Internet-based news sites, including cbsnews.com.
The area where the Sudanese said the attack occurred, near Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is an isolated patch of eastern Sudan near the Egyptian border and a notorious smuggling route, populated mostly by nomads and known as one of the poorest, least developed parts of a very poor, underdeveloped country.
The Sudanese said the reports emerged now because it took time to fully investigate the strike. But an accusation from one government official that the attack was an American act of genocide raised the possibility that the Sudanese were lashing out because the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for the arrest of their president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on war-crimes charges in the conflict in Darfur.
The official, Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman, also gave a death toll in the attack that was higher than the 39 reported in other secondhand accounts. Mr. Rabie said by telephone from Khartoum, the capital, that “more than 100 people” had been killed in the air raid. He said the trucks that were bombed were not carrying weapons. “I’ve heard this allegation, but it’s not true,” he said. “It was a genocide, committed by U.S. forces.”
When asked how he knew the forces were American, Mr. Rabie said: “We don’t differentiate between the U.S. and Israel. They are all one.”
Vince Crawley, a spokesman for the United States Africa Command, said American forces had not bombed Sudan. “The U.S. military has not conducted any airstrikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since October 2008, when U.S. Africa Command formally became responsible for U.S. military action in Africa,” he said.
The American officials who described the Israeli role declined to be identified because they were discussing classified information and were not authorized to speak for the Obama administration. One American military official said the January strike was one of a series of Israeli attacks against arms shipments bound for Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, did not comment specifically on the reported bombing. But he said in a speech on Thursday in Israel that when it came to security, “we operate wherever it is possible to harm terror infrastructure, near and far.”
Shlomo Brom, a retired general at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said it would be “very logical” to assume that Israel would have wanted to bomb a weapons convoy in Sudan. “It fits exactly with the pattern of how Israel operates,” he said.
Israeli officials say that most of the weapons smuggled to Gaza flow through a labyrinth of tunnels running beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.
Israel has blamed Iran for supplying many of these weapons, especially the rockets that Hamas has fired at Israeli civilians. Israeli military analysts said that eastern Sudan could have been a little-watched backdoor for Iranian weapons to reach Gaza.
Hossam Zaki, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said: “How do we know these are weapons to be smuggled and destined to go to Gaza through Egypt? These are only intelligence reports.” Asked if he had information about the strikes at the time the Sudanese said they had happened, he said, “We had our intelligence as well,” and refused to elaborate further.
Israel is no stranger to daring military operations when it concludes its security is threatened. It has a history of attacking enemies far from its territory. Israeli Air Force planes destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, and in 2007 they destroyed a site in Syria that Israeli and American intelligence analysts said was a partly constructed nuclear reactor. Israel never officially acknowledged that it was responsible for the Syrian strike.
Mr. Rabie, the Sudanese spokesman, implied that his government might have more to say on the episode. He said the government waited two months to go public because “we were doing investigations.
“We want to follow the case,” he said. “And the government is still collecting information.”
Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Nairobi, Kenya. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem, Eric Schmitt from Washington, and Mona el-Naggar from Cairo.
“The strike itself would have required satellite guidance or cameras on the missiles,” Mr. Heller said. “There are only two air forces that could have carried it out: the U.S. and Israeli.”
The United States has strongly denied carrying out any such attack.
“The U.S. military has not conducted any air strikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since the U.S. Africa Command formally began operations Oct. 1” said Vince Crawley, a spokesman for the command.
Such a trip would have required at least one in-air refuelling, Mr. Heller said.
“Until now, our priorities have been along the Gaza-Sinai frontier,” the (Israeli) official said. “While efforts there are continuing, we also have to ask ourselves: Is it possible to be more pro-active in intercepting weapons before they arrive at the frontier?
“That's why we signed an MOU with [former U.S.] secretary of state [Condoleezza] Rice, to intercept weapons shipments,” he said.
The memorandum of understanding, signed Jan. 16 in Washington by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, calls for the United States and its partners to work together to address the problem of the supply of arms to Hamas and other militant forces in Gaza. It lists the areas where such arms shipments may occur as “the Mediterranean, Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Eastern Africa.” Sudan is an Eastern African country.
http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2009...ttack.html
***************************************************
Israeli Attack On Sudan Killed At Least 39 U.S. Officials Say Israel Struck in Sudan
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
March 27, 2009 "NYT" -- - WASHINGTON — Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January that was believed to be carrying arms to be smuggled into Gaza, according to American officials.
Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the attack, but intelligence analysts noted that the strike was consistent with other measures Israel had taken to secure its borders.
American officials said the airstrike took place as Israel sought to stop the flow of weapons to Gaza during the weeks it was fighting a war with Hamas there.
Two American officials who are privy to classified intelligence assessments said that Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to Gaza. They also noted that there had been intelligence reports that an operative with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort.
But one former official said that the exact provenance of the arms that were being smuggled via Sudan was unclear.
Although the airstrike was carried out two months ago, it was not publicized until Sudanese officials said Thursday that a convoy of trucks in the remote eastern part of Sudan was bombed by what they called “American fighters,” killing dozens. The strikes were first reported on several Internet-based news sites, including cbsnews.com.
The area where the Sudanese said the attack occurred, near Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is an isolated patch of eastern Sudan near the Egyptian border and a notorious smuggling route, populated mostly by nomads and known as one of the poorest, least developed parts of a very poor, underdeveloped country.
The Sudanese said the reports emerged now because it took time to fully investigate the strike. But an accusation from one government official that the attack was an American act of genocide raised the possibility that the Sudanese were lashing out because the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant for the arrest of their president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on war-crimes charges in the conflict in Darfur.
The official, Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman, also gave a death toll in the attack that was higher than the 39 reported in other secondhand accounts. Mr. Rabie said by telephone from Khartoum, the capital, that “more than 100 people” had been killed in the air raid. He said the trucks that were bombed were not carrying weapons. “I’ve heard this allegation, but it’s not true,” he said. “It was a genocide, committed by U.S. forces.”
When asked how he knew the forces were American, Mr. Rabie said: “We don’t differentiate between the U.S. and Israel. They are all one.”
Vince Crawley, a spokesman for the United States Africa Command, said American forces had not bombed Sudan. “The U.S. military has not conducted any airstrikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since October 2008, when U.S. Africa Command formally became responsible for U.S. military action in Africa,” he said.
The American officials who described the Israeli role declined to be identified because they were discussing classified information and were not authorized to speak for the Obama administration. One American military official said the January strike was one of a series of Israeli attacks against arms shipments bound for Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, did not comment specifically on the reported bombing. But he said in a speech on Thursday in Israel that when it came to security, “we operate wherever it is possible to harm terror infrastructure, near and far.”
Shlomo Brom, a retired general at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said it would be “very logical” to assume that Israel would have wanted to bomb a weapons convoy in Sudan. “It fits exactly with the pattern of how Israel operates,” he said.
Israeli officials say that most of the weapons smuggled to Gaza flow through a labyrinth of tunnels running beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.
Israel has blamed Iran for supplying many of these weapons, especially the rockets that Hamas has fired at Israeli civilians. Israeli military analysts said that eastern Sudan could have been a little-watched backdoor for Iranian weapons to reach Gaza.
Hossam Zaki, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said: “How do we know these are weapons to be smuggled and destined to go to Gaza through Egypt? These are only intelligence reports.” Asked if he had information about the strikes at the time the Sudanese said they had happened, he said, “We had our intelligence as well,” and refused to elaborate further.
Israel is no stranger to daring military operations when it concludes its security is threatened. It has a history of attacking enemies far from its territory. Israeli Air Force planes destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, and in 2007 they destroyed a site in Syria that Israeli and American intelligence analysts said was a partly constructed nuclear reactor. Israel never officially acknowledged that it was responsible for the Syrian strike.
Mr. Rabie, the Sudanese spokesman, implied that his government might have more to say on the episode. He said the government waited two months to go public because “we were doing investigations.
“We want to follow the case,” he said. “And the government is still collecting information.”
Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Nairobi, Kenya. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem, Eric Schmitt from Washington, and Mona el-Naggar from Cairo.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.